


Via Spain

by taibhrigh



Category: The Losers, The Losers (2010)
Genre: Backstory, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-09
Updated: 2010-12-09
Packaged: 2017-10-13 14:22:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/138328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taibhrigh/pseuds/taibhrigh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What do you really know about Carlos Alvarez?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Via Spain

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [Siluria](http://archiveofourown.org/users/siluria) for the beta. [Kayim](http://archiveofourown.org/users/kayim) is still responsible for introducing me to The Losers.
> 
> This story was written for smallfandomfest #8 on LJ.

Contrary to the belief of everyone on any base he has ever been stationed on Carlos Alvarez is not from Mexico. And neither were his parents. He was not of Mexican descent. Hispanic decent, yes; Mexican, no. It is a fact he has never tried to correct. He lets people believe what they want.

He's also only tried twice to correct his last name, as it was technically not Alvarez. That had been his mother's name before she married. But trying to argue with the US Army had gotten him nothing and nowhere but a headache and another stack of forms that he just tossed into the nearest garbage bin. After his first mission with Special Forces had gone wrong, he'd been very happy that it had never been corrected. His military jacket was filled with half-truths from missions that may or may not have ever happened; so his personal history being the same was probably for the best.

His mother had been born in Seville, Spain and lived almost her entire life there. She'd been a writer having lunch at a small outdoor cafe when she saw a handsome US Serviceman sitting a few tables away. Once or twice a week she would see him in the same cafe. He'd smile; she'd smile.

The man would unknowingly become his mother's muse. She would use him as inspiration in several of her short stories. Four months later her book of short stories would be at her publishers and yet she and the man would have only said a few words to each other. The words you say as a friendly greeting to someone you see on a regular basis. _Hello. Good Afternoon. Morning. How are you today? Fine. Beautiful sunset._

It took another two months and a busy cafe for the two of them to sit at the same table. She offered and he accepted. He was quiet and soft spoken. She fell in love when they split a dessert. He fell in love when the feisty Spanish writer had finally told him her name.

They married six months later and Carlos came along three years and two books after that. Carlos grew up in a happy, loving home. He attended the school for children whose parents worked on or with the military base. He could speak several languages by the time he was twelve, but he was still a quiet person--much like his father. His love of books and reading was from his mother and the times they would spend with each other reading when his father was away.

When he was sixteen Carlos' father was transferred back to the States. His family closed up their home and moved to California. His mother continued to write her books--some even now being published in English. His father still her muse.

He followed his father into the US military though, a different branch. His father never questioned his choice and Carlos knew his parents always wanted him to follow his own path. His training sent him from California to Georgia and Virginia and a few other places. His parents were proud. And he liked what he was learning and doing. He had natural talents and the Army honed those the first few years. He earned a nickname, a codename: Cougar. It stuck.

Then tragedy struck while Cougar was on a mission. His father was killed in a holdup at a local gas station when he used his body to shield a woman and her child. The Army gave him leave.

His father would be buried with honors, but his ashes would be taken to Spain. Not that that information was in his military jacket. Cougar helped his mother pack up their home in the States and moved her back to the small home she still owned in Spain.

She passed away quietly in her sleep six months later. Cougar always figured that she simply didn't want to be away from his father, her muse, any longer. He was once again granted leave. He closed up the home but didn't sell it. It's still in his real name to this date.

When sorting through the papers on his mother's desk he found her final manuscript. One of romance between a simple Spanish author and a US Serviceman. He never sent the manuscript to the publisher.

Instead Cougar made a copy of it so he could read it on the plane home and put the original hard copy and the floppy disk she'd saved it to in the lockbox that his father had hidden in a closet. He learned much about his parents during the fourteen-hour flight back to the States. Before going back to base he shredded the manuscript.

As soon as he was back on base he was told his unit was going out on a mission. He barely had enough time to exchange his rucksack for his military gear and rifle before he was boarding a plane to who knows where.

The mission went badly. Real bad. As in he and one other person made it out. While he covered the one guy's easy sprint and climb into the transport at the LZ he was stuck nearly a click away on the rooftop of a building. Not to mention that he knew the enemy was heading his way. Cougar had to make a tactical decision and moved across the rooftops as the helicopter was headed his way. He took a shot to the upper thigh but kept going and made a not so smooth jump onto the floor of the helicopter that kept from damaging his rifle.

When he sat up he noticed there were a couple of other people in the back. It would be his first run in with Major Franklin Clay and one Captain William Roque. There would be six more over the course of the next year and a half before he and the pilot that had rescued him were both transferred to Major Clay's unit.

They didn't earn the name The Losers until they lost their thirteenth team member and they had really only lost two of those too death. The rest had been rotated in and out for special or temporary duty. Though Roque had been the cause for a couple of the men asking for transfers. Cougar figured Clay was looking for the right person.

Corporal Jacob Jensen joined the Losers eight people later. Cougar was sure of several things. Roque didn't actually scare Jensen. That Jensen was far more dangerous with a computer than with a gun but he was deadly with that as well. That he was sane most of the time; or as sane as the rest of the people Clay had handpicked for his unit. And that they had found a fifth team member who wasn't going to run for the hills and filled a niche they hadn't even known they had been missing.

It only took a handful of months for Cougar to realize that Jake had become a friend. That he'd come to count on Jensen's noise--music, chatter, trivia--to balance his quietness. The younger man could carry on a conversation with him and Cougar merely needed to nod or speak a couple of words for them to communicate. The others thought it strange, he thought it perfect.

Jensen spoke Spanish; among other things. Cougar discounted Elvish because they didn't live in a Tolkien novel. But after nearly two years the rest of the team hadn't figured out that Jensen picked up languages like they were shiny tech toys made for taking apart and putting back together and tossed away when no longer needed.

Cougar had his hat pulled low and his feet were propped up on the edge of Jensen's desk. The blond was hacking into somewhere that he probably shouldn't be but it kept him out of trouble on the base. Cougar glanced down at the small handheld book reader in his hand. It wasn't the first one the tech had given him. That one had been destroyed on a mission a few months back, but like its predecessor had been handed to him in a hard plastic flip case already loaded with books.

Some of the titles he had recognized as books he'd read while on base, others he guessed Jensen thought he would enjoy. They were in English and Spanish so that whatever his mood was he could read either way. The best thing about it, all of his mother's books had been loaded on to it. He didn't question how Jake knew that but he was sure whatever breadcrumbs lead Jensen to that knowledge no longer existed.

He looked back down at the reader and flipped the page. They were due for a training mission in Spain and then a two week leave. Maybe he'd take Jensen to see where he grew up. After all, Jake often took him back to New Hampshire on their leave. And maybe, just maybe Jake could figure a way to get his mother's last book onto the reader.

Cougar grinned, listening to the hacker sweet talk his computer for a minute before returning to his book.


End file.
